A floe is a large, flat sheet of floating ice. When you picture the Arctic Ocean, those massive chunks of ice drifting on the water's surface are ice floes. They form when sea ice breaks apart, creating platforms that can range from small pieces a few feet across to enormous fields of ice stretching for miles.

Polar bears hunt seals by waiting on ice floes, sometimes riding them as they drift with ocean currents. Arctic explorers must carefully navigate their ships between these floating ice masses. During spring in polar regions, the sea ice breaks up into thousands of floes that slowly melt as they drift toward warmer waters.

Ice floes are different from icebergs: floes are flat and form from frozen seawater, while icebergs are tall chunks that break off glaciers on land. If you visit Alaska or northern Canada in winter, you might see ice floes crowding harbors or rivers, creating temporary platforms that shift and crack as temperatures change.